"A white manager loses his job and gets another job, he loses his job, he gets another job. Very few black managers can lose their job and get another job," he told John Barnes: Sports Life Stories, which will be broadcast on ITV4 tonight (Tuesday, March 31).

"What I can judge it from is by looking at society. How many black people are there in the higher echelons of any industry? We can talk about journalism, we can talk about politics. So why should football be any different?"

After a promising start in Glasgow - and striker Henrik Larsson's leg break - Barnes' debut season at Celtic disintegrated and his assistant, Eric Black and the man he described as the club's 'social convener, Terry McDermott, followed him out of the door.

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However, he denied that the Celtic job was simply too big for him at that time.

He said: "Well, if it comes now at 51, I don't think it will be any different. It's more to do with the perception of my ability to do the job, because there's a certain perception of who can make a good manager."

In the programme, which also tackles the horrific racial abuse Barnes experienced as a player at Liverpool, he is backed in his views by Arsenal legend Ian Wright.